Updated
TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay: 2027 Prompt and Example
For Entry Year 2027, the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay has a new prompt: “Describe your personal qualities, characteristics, skills, or strengths, and how they will contribute meaningfully to the lives of others.” It is required of all applicants and limited to 2,500 characters, including spaces, per the TMDSAS Application Guide. It is about who you are and what others gain from it, not why you want medicine. TMDSAS changed this prompt for Entry Year 2027 and posts the Entry Year 2028 prompts when that application opens, so check the essays page again then.
Below is how it fits with the other two TMDSAS essays, a plan for splitting your stories and a full example we wrote, all checked on October 30, 2026.
What is the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay prompt?
The TMDSAS essays page introduces the prompt with one line about holistic review:
A key aspect of holistic review includes the consideration of applicants' attributes within the context of their experiences and academic metrics. Describe your personal qualities, characteristics, skills, or strengths, and how they will contribute meaningfully to the lives of others.
TMDSAS labels it “NEW Prompt for EY 2027.” Many examples online were written for older prompts about adding to the educational experience of classmates and quote other limits. The current prompt is wider. It asks about your qualities and how they will contribute to the lives of others, which can mean classmates, patients or a community.
Three rules from the same guide matter here. The character count includes spaces. Type the essay directly into the application rather than pasting from a word processor. And essays cannot be changed after you submit, under any circumstances.
How it differs from the personal statement and optional essay
Applicants to the 14 TMDSAS medical schools see three essay prompts, and each asks a different question:
| Essay | Limit | It asks for | Best for (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal statement | Limit: 5,000 characters | It asks for: Your motivation to seek a career in medicine and the value of the experiences that prepare you to be a physician | Best for (ours): Why medicine: clinical, service and research experiences |
| Personal characteristics | Limit: 2,500 characters | It asks for: Your qualities, characteristics, skills or strengths and how they will contribute to the lives of others | Best for (ours): Who you are and what others gain from it |
| Optional essay | Limit: 2,500 characters | It asks for: Circumstances or experiences relevant to your application that you have not presented elsewhere | Best for (ours): Context: a grade dip, a gap, work or family duties |
TMDSAS says the optional essay is not an area to continue your other essays or repeat what you have already said, and it strongly encourages you to use it.
Which story goes in which TMDSAS essay?
The common mistake is writing the personal characteristics essay as a second personal statement. Here is how we would split one invented applicant's stories:
| Story | Essay | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Shadowing in a rural clinic | Essay: Personal statement | Why: It tested the motivation for medicine. |
| Six years at the family hardware store | Essay: Personal characteristics | Why: It built the qualities, and it isn't medical. |
| Coaching a robotics team | Essay: Personal characteristics | Why: It shows those qualities helping other people. |
| A low semester while working 30 hours a week | Essay: Optional essay | Why: It is context the rest of the application doesn't explain. |
How to write the personal characteristics essay
- Pick one or two qualities. Patience, a second language, a skill from work or caregiving. 2,500 characters is roughly 400 words, room for one main story and one supporting one.
- Show where the quality came from. A setting and a habit, not a list of traits.
- Show it helping someone else. The prompt asks how your strengths contribute to the lives of others, so include a moment where they did.
- Name who benefits next. End on a concrete picture of classmates or patients, not “I hope to bring this to medical school.”
TMDSAS personal characteristics essay example
Example written by Confetto. The applicant is invented. It is 2,268 characters with spaces, under the 2,500 limit.
For six years I worked the counter at my family's hardware store in a small West Texas town. Most customers did not need a product. They needed a problem solved, usually a leak, and usually on a Saturday when no plumber would come.
I learned that the angriest customer in the store was usually the most worried one. When a rancher came in shouting about a well pump, the fastest way to help was to let him finish, repeat the problem back to him and then hand him something to do. I also learned to notice who kept coming back. When Mrs. Ortega bought the same faucet washer three weekends in a row, I asked how the repair was going. She had been trying to fix it alone since her husband died. My father stopped by her house after closing that evening, and she still waves at me from her truck.
In college I brought the same habits to a role I did not expect to like. I coached a middle school robotics team for two seasons. Our first build fell apart in front of the judges, and two students stopped coming to practice. I called both families, learned that one student had been embarrassed and the other had no ride, and found a parent who could drive. The next season, those two students presented for the team.
The habit has limits, and I learned them the hard way. During a busy spring I rushed a customer through a fitting she did not follow, and she came back the next morning after water had covered her kitchen floor. Since then I slow down most when I am busiest, because that is when I stop noticing people.
These are the strengths I will bring: steadiness with people who are frustrated or scared, and the habit of noticing when someone keeps returning with the same problem. In a study group, I will be the classmate who sees that someone has gone quiet and asks what is getting in the way. With patients, it means treating a third visit for the same complaint as a question about their life, not only their chart, the way a third faucet washer once was.
Many of my classmates will come from bigger cities and better-known schools than mine. What I can offer them is practical: a calm voice when a lab goes wrong, and the patience to ask a second question when the first answer does not add up. Those are the same things I hope my patients will notice.
Notes on each paragraph
- It opens on a setting that has nothing to do with medicine, which keeps it apart from the personal statement.
- Two qualities, shown through moments rather than named: staying steady with someone upset, and noticing what a repeated visit says.
- The qualities move to a new setting and help other people. That is the second half of the prompt, the contribution to others.
- A short moment where the quality failed. It shows self-awareness and makes the strength believable.
- Now the writer names the qualities and says what classmates and patients get from them, in concrete scenes. The last image returns to the store.
- The close stays humble and concrete. It ends on classmates and patients, the two groups the prompt points to.
Weak to strong: the closing paragraph
The last paragraph is where most drafts go generic. Here is a typical closing and the version from our example.
| Version | Closing paragraph |
|---|---|
| Weak | Closing paragraph: I hope to bring my patience, communication skills and diverse perspective to medical school. I believe these qualities will help me contribute to a rich learning environment and make a positive impact on my classmates and future patients. |
| Strong | Closing paragraph: These are the strengths I will bring: steadiness with people who are frustrated or scared, and the habit of noticing when someone keeps returning with the same problem. In a study group, I will be the classmate who sees that someone has gone quiet and asks what is getting in the way. With patients, it means treating a third visit for the same complaint as a question about their life, not only their chart, the way a third faucet washer once was. |
The weak version names qualities and promises impact. The strong one says who benefits and shows a specific scene for each: a quiet classmate and a patient on a third visit.
The interview version of this essay
Texas schools interview from summer into February. Our TMDSAS interviews guide has each school's format and the 2027 offer and Match dates. For the personal statement, see the why medicine essay guide and its example.
“What would you bring to our medical school class?”
You may hear a spoken version of this essay at your interviews. Name one quality, give one moment that shows it and say who benefits, in about a minute.
Example answer written by Confetto (the applicant is invented)
I notice when someone keeps coming back with the same problem. Behind the counter of my family's hardware store, a widow bought the same faucet washer three weekends in a row, and asking about it turned a sale into a repair my father made that evening.
I did the same coaching a robotics team, when two students quietly stopped coming. In a study group I will be the classmate who sees that someone has gone quiet and asks what is getting in the way.
Sources: the TMDSAS Application Guide (Essays) and tmdsas.com, linked throughout and checked as of October 30, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay prompt for 2027?
TMDSAS marks it as a new prompt for Entry Year 2027: "Describe your personal qualities, characteristics, skills, or strengths, and how they will contribute meaningfully to the lives of others." It is required of all applicants. See the TMDSAS essays page.
How long is the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay?
2,500 characters, including spaces. The personal statement is 5,000 characters and the optional essay is 2,500. TMDSAS reminds applicants that the count includes spaces. Compare every application's limits.
How is it different from the TMDSAS personal statement?
The personal statement asks for your motivation to seek a career in medicine. The personal characteristics essay asks what qualities you have and how they will contribute to the lives of others. Use different stories, and keep this one about who you are rather than why medicine. See our why medicine essay guide.
Should I write about adversity in the personal characteristics essay?
Only if the essay is about a quality you built and how it helps others. Context that explains your record, such as a hard semester or a gap, fits the optional essay, which asks for circumstances you have not presented elsewhere. Read the optional essay prompt.
Can I change my TMDSAS essays after I submit?
No. The TMDSAS Application Guide says essays cannot be changed after submitting under any circumstances. It also recommends typing them directly into the application to avoid formatting problems. See the TMDSAS essay rules.